A Lovely Long Weekend… And a Bit of Sewing

It was a nice long holiday weekend. It all started Saturday morning with two hours of pickleball. It was a really gorgeous day and it was a great way to start the weekend. I really don’t remember what I did Saturday afternoon. I’m sure I took my boys for a nice long walk but the rest is a blur.

I had to get to bed REALLY early because I needed to be on the road at 4:30 am Sunday for Rico’s sheep herding trial.

I did manage to finish the binding on my NY Beauty wall hanging. I’m pretty happy with how this came together and I’m really glad to have it done. It’s been a lot of years in process.

Sewing on that binding was much easier than I thought it would be. Makes me feel not quite so horrified about the six quilts that will come back to me soon needing binding finished.

Since I had to be up at 3:30 Sunday morning I took some Advil PM at around 8:00 Saturday night and found myself ready to go to bed around 10:30. I was pretty groggy when my alarm went off Sunday morning, But I got out of bed and got moving. We were on the road at 4:30. I was surprised the sky was as light as it was.

I’m happy to say that getting up that early was totally worth it because Rico was a very good boy at the herding trial. He got scores in three of his four runs. That basically means that we didn’t make any mistakes that disqualified us. In sheep herding you start out with a certain number of points for each element of the run. then they deduct points for the parts you don’t do correctly.

Here’s the score sheet for the novice class. Rico had his regular run, and then a non compete run (basically an exhibition run).

This is a trial that allows training in the ring, so that’s really the reason I go. And I really wanted to see Rico do some nice outruns in this trial. it’s where he’s struggled in the last couple of trials. And he gave me beautiful outruns all day. In his first run he lost 7 points on the outrun. On his second run he only lost three points!

Here’s the score sheet for his ranch class. His second run featured a perfect outrun and lift. Those zeros are a very good thing! They mean he did such a lovely job they couldn’t take any points from him!

I was so happy with how he did. Definitely worth the trip. And we started so early that we were on the road home at 10 am!

You can learn all about sheep herding trials at this Wikipedia page.

Here’s Rico watching another dog work the sheep.

He was a good boy and waited patiently for his turn.

Bender got to join us for a nice field run before we hit the road for home.

I was so tired when I got home that about all I could manage to do was a little grocery shopping for my Memorial Day pot luck dinner. I also got my pork tenderloin and chicken thighs in their marinades and in the fridge.

I went and played pickleball again on Monday morning and had a blast! My knee is feeling so much better… thanks to the power of ice and CBD oil!

I had a wonderful time with my friends at our Memorial Day pot luck dinner. The food was good and it was really fun to see friends!

My yard looks pretty perfect right now and we were comfortable outdoors the entire time.

I got up early again today and played 3.5 hours of pickleball! The last four or five games were the best. A lot of people had left and I got on a court with three men and we had a bunch of really fun and competitive games. None of us wanted to go home!

But once I did get home I grabbed some lunch and then headed out to a nice, big garden center West of me.

It’s a beautiful place and it’s huge!

I bought two red grasses and a lavender plant. And I quickly got them planted when I got home…

I also planted a couple of hostas that I bought last week.

After dinner I took the boys for a nice three mile walk. The weather was so perfect! It was really an amazing day.

Then I hit my sewing room to work on the Wensleydale quilt top. I sewed together four more rows of bocks, and sewed the six rows that were done into sets of two rows each.

So just four more rows that need to be sewn together.

And I’m pinning pretty carefully to make sure these blocks all come together nicely. It’s working well so far and I’m liking what I see.

I’m a little anxious to get this quilt off my design wall so I can decide what to do with my Japanese X#+ quilt.

Back to work for a few days. I had planned to take Friday off as well, but I’m not sure that will happen. I’d like to make it happen!